There is no doubt that Dutch Design Week is an event that could be described as one of the many cherries on the global design cake. Every year in October, the city of Eindhoven is transformed into a design mecca that remains shining bright for nine whole days. This year’s edition of Dutch Design Week manifested itself around the topic of “The Making of”, and stretched through more than 430 curated exhibitions and events across 100 locations in the city. As always, the creative radiant ranged from displaying not only the work of many Dutch design grandmasters, but also putting a highlight upon the young and the fresh. Performances, lectures, live concerts, exclusive design parties, cabs with chairs and random design objects attached to their roof, the crowd of cool, and a never-ending sensation of being in the epicentre of the design world was on the plate of each visitor.

So now, when the design wonderland has gone back to its winter/summer sleep, and the creative over-excitement in its visitors has cooled down, it’s time to empty those pockets that have been filled with visual impressions and digital postcards.

DESIGN ACADEMY GRADUATION SHOW - “IN NEED OF”

KATHRINE BARBRO BENDIXEN - INSIDE OUT

“Inside Out” is a lamp comprised of 50 metres of cleaned and inflated intestines from a single cow. Even the twists that tangle around the LED lights are curved in their natural appearance. As the air will slowly escape over time, the lamp – just like the cow that produced it – will perish.

SIGVE KNUTSON - DRAWN OBJECTS

In “Drawn Objects”, Sigve Knutson explores how a designer might work if the qualities of drawing were applied to the various phases of a production process. It explores a multitude of ways to apply drawing to the production of objects. For instance, by connecting drawing to crafts, a new range of methods and ways of working on the surfaces of forms emerges. The intuitive and personal are not smoothed away, but they become the foundations from which objects are born.

CHARLOTTE POMMET & ELLIOT KENDALL - PER METRE

Veneer is typically used as an economical solution to achieve a wood aesthetic by covering lower quality materials. Shifting towards a more honest use of the material, Charlotte Pommet and Elliot Kendall explore the potential of veneer on its own. They have developed a forming technique that relies on the properties suitable to each species and grain pattern.

SANNE GELISSEN- SOUND SCENE

Instead of allowing sound to spill out and take over the entire room, this device bundles sound waves together, beaming them towards a specific point – like a kind of sound spotlight. Within this audio zone, music can be enjoyed to the max without bothering those outside of it.

Photos: Wendy Andreu

WENDY ANDREU - REGEN

Wendy Andreu has created a system for producing water-proof garments that don’t require any sewing or cutting patterns. Called “Regen”, the fabric is double-sided with water-repellent latex on one side, and cotton rope on the other.

TAMARA ORJOLA - FOREST WOOL

Tamara Orjola researched the potential use of pine needles that are unused and left behind while the rest of the pine tree is considered to be the world’s main source of timber.

She found them to be a great alternative for all kinds of fibres. With standard manufacturing techniques – crushing, soaking, steaming, carding, binding and pressing – they can be transformed into textiles, composites, paper, and even furniture.

“FOR PLAY, SHAPING SEXUALITY” AT THE MU GALLERY

For Play playfully explores the contemporary culture of eroticism, gratification, lust and desire while questioning what design for sexuality could look like. And no, there were no dildos.

JAN PIETER KAPTEIN - FORT FOLLY

“Fort Folly” – a giant bed constructed from more than 200 pillows, and one that calls for playfulness in the bedroom. A space for being naive, foolish, and not taking yourself too seriously.

“Dear House” encourages you to get to know your house intimately while cleaning it. Marijke has designed a very poetic piece of cleaning equipment that extends the arm’s reach, narrows the fingers, and positions bristles in handy places (watch video - vimeo.com/tj&ma).

MICHELE DEGEN - VULVA VERSA

A Design Academy Eindhoven graduate project created together with the Maxima Medisch Centrum Department of Gynaecology. This work encourages and empowers women to look at their intimate parts in order to achieve a better understanding of their own body, to facilitate the conversation, and to tackle the taboos surrounding the vulva.

BART HESS - CAGED

After entering a pitch black space that turns out to be a cage, visitors are attacked by a variety of creatures in Hess’ creations. Hess played with the scale of the creatures, varying from human size to those of giants trying to find their way into the structure.

The “Broken White” exhibition invited visitors to look at how the source and appearance of colour have changed within the contemporary world, and to recalibrate our understanding of colour.

“The digital revolution has changed everything. For centuries, colour was thought of in terms of light falling onto an object and being reflected to a greater or lesser extent. Total reflection results in white; absolute absorption – in black. But the screens that are ever present nowadays aren’t objects reflecting light. They radiate light themselves. The source of colour has changed, and with it, so has its appearance,” says the curator – artist Mathieu Meijers – a former Design Academy teacher.

Raised in France, England, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Australia, artist Lea Donnan has a nomad’s understanding of belonging. Her tents are made from salvaged blankets and are temporary homes for the uprooted. (In the background – Walter Van Beirendonck, “Stop Terrorizing Our World”)

THEO HOPPENBROUWERS - BOX OF COLOUR SWATCHES FOR HOUSE PAINTERS

ENVISIONS - RGB FUNFAIR

PANTONE - COLOURS OF 2016

Every year, Pantone chooses a colour symbolizing the current mood and attitude in society. For the first time, they have chosen not one, but two colours – “Rose Quartz” and “Serenity”. The combination of a warm rose tone and a tranquil blue is meant to “unify emotional wellness with a sense of order – the push and pull of high-speed 21st-century living”. (Forefront – Bouroullec Brothers)

ANISH KAPOOR - VANTABLACK

Anish Kapoor recently acquired the rights to “Vantablack” – an exclusive pigment said to be the purest black in the world. Vantablack absorbs 99,96% of all light, and it is, indeed, very black.

ENVISIONS. PRODUCTS IN PROCESS, PART 2

In their exhibition “Products in Process”, the freshly-founded Dutch collective Envisions presents everything but the end product. By revealing the usually hidden in-between steps that lead from an idea to an end result, this exhibition celebrated non-restricted experimentation and a “thinking-with-your-hands” attitude as the keys to innovation!

POPCORE

An exhibition gathering the work of young and upcoming talents that “are experiencing a new, fluid way of living”, as they say. With a background in design, this assembly of creatives ultimately aims to represent the voice of our generation; quality is achieved by merging design with disciplines such as fashion, philosophy, and music, thereby creating a 360° experience.

RembrandtLAB is an innovative investigation into colour and the way it is used, with modern designers taking Rembrandt’s use of colour in the seventeenth century and translating it into the twenty-first.

STUDIO DRIFT - IN 20 STEPS

RICK TEGELAAR - CIELING CAM FAN

MORGAN RUBEN - NERO LIGHTS

This collection of lights was born of the designer’s wish to retain some of these crafts, while combining them with innovative developments in lighting technology. Nero Lights consists of oak dipped in Indian ink, with stainless-steel fittings that have been polished to a mirror sheen.

WENDY ANDREU - THE BOUNCE

Wendy Andreu has developed a bouncing principle with a non-obvious bouncing material – ash wood. The surface acts like a trampoline that, after receiving input, gives the same input back. “Like the sole of an athletic shoe,” says Wendy.

ADRIANUS KUNDERT - INDIGOES

Kundert has designed a rug that becomes richer by being in use. Over time, new shades of blue appear on the areas that are frequently walked on. In this way, he wants to extend the lifespan of the product, and place the mortality of materials in a positive spotlight.